Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Revelations 01:06:2005So the lid has finally come off one of the media’s best kept secrets. The world now knows Deep Throat is actually Mark Felt, the No. 2 official of the F.B.I. during the Nixon presidency. The Deep Throat mystery, fed by the images of Robert Redford (Bob Woodward) talking to a shadowy figure who tells him to “Follow the money” in Alan J Pakula’s All The President’s Men (1976), has bred an industry, with ‘experts’ speculating ad nauseam about the identity of the whistleblower-who-would-not-be-identified. Definitely a red-letter day for the journalistic fraternity.

Red-letter day it is, but I feel the revelation has demystified investigative journalism. Here, I would like to agree to some extent to Mr Sanghvi's comment (and one Mr AKB's)that most instances of "investigative journalism" are results of some aggrieved party "leaking" information.BTW, remember USIS? Slept through most of ATPM!